Of Boys and Men

Boys and men are struggling, but helping them can also help women and gender inequality

Men are falling behind women in school, in the workplace, and in other key measures of life outcomes, which has substantial implications for women’s outcomes, too, according to Brookings’ scholar and journalist Richard Reeves.

On November 3, 2022 at Northwestern, Reeves took part in a wide-ranging conversation about the evidence in his latest book, Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It (2022, Brookings Institution Press,) with then IPR Director and economist Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach . He also outlined policy proposals for countering the decline, including a controversial one to redshirt, or hold back all boys one year in school.

Diving into the Education Data

Schanzenbach then asked him to dive into some of the data behind his findings.

Reeves pointed to evidence showing that high school GPA was a great predictor of outcomes overall, and when he examined findings from various studies, they showed that “girls were basically ahead in pretty much everything.”

These data led him to a conclusion that many might find “shocking.” “I think we have learned that the education system has been structured to favor girls rather than boys,” he said.

Reeves described a 10 percentage-point drop in college enrollment out of high school and the 10 percentage-point gap for men’s on-time college graduation. He noted how this has changed since Title IX, the law that mandates equal treatment in institutions of higher education receiving federal funds. Prior to 1972 when it passed, men were 13 percentage points more likely to go to college. Since then, it has swung 15 percentage points in the other direction to women being more likely to attend.

This figure signals a massive change, Reeves said, “We have wider gender inequality today in U.S. higher education than we did when Title IX was passed. It’s just in the reverse direction.”

Which Boys Are Most Affected?

“You’re particularly concerned about Black boys and lower-income boys,”

Schanzenbach asked. “What unique challenges do they face? Should we think about them being more challenged?”

Studies of implicit bias, criminal sentencing, and even cultural issues around toxic masculinity show how much Black men are uniquely stigmatized, Reeves said. He referred to data showing a wider gender gap between Black boys and girls than White ones.

In addition to race, class and family economics also contribute. He discussed how the gap between girls and boys widens the further down the socioeconomic ladder one goes, and how every measure of disadvantage shows boys doing worse— except for those in the middle or upper classes. Middle- and upper-class parents, he surmised, have the resources and the knowledge to help their boys overcome their disadvantages.

“Poverty really does amplify the agenda,” he said.

New Career Paths and Redshirting

In terms of policy solutions, Reeves discussed two specific proposals. First, he offered that men should be encouraged to go into fields like healthcare and teaching currently dominated by women workers. To this end, he suggested promoting boys-only scholarships—much like what is currently done to encourage girls to go into STEM fields—would be another important step forward. To those who find such a proposal discriminatory, he said it is “perfectly justified on some of the same grounds that we’ve had similar policies the other way around.”

Second is redshirting all boys in K–12 schools. Reeves said he developed it because research has shown girls’ prefrontal cortexes develop earlier than those of boys. This means they develop impulse control earlier, which in turn helps them to do better in school. So holding boys back one year would allow them to be the developmental equals of girls in their classes.

Schanzenbach, who has studied redshirting, said she and Reeves “have agreed to disagree” on this proposal. She asked him if its costs might outweigh the benefits. Implementing it, she continued, would mean boys would lose a year in the labor market, which could wind up costing them far more in terms of lifetime earnings. Reeves agreed that more work is needed to fully understand it, but the status quo of doing nothing is also problematic.

“[T]hese problems won’t go away on their own. They’re going to fester if we don’t address them,” he said.